Thursday, 27 February 2014

LANNER FALCON AT CUATRO LUGARES. MAY 2013

Extremadura
is a region at the periphery of a country at the periphery of Europe.
It is a place about which generally little is spoken of across the
continent, apart from about birds. For example there is the Facebook
group "Extremadura
Birdwatching",
created by Ib Helles Olesen,
a Dane living in Copenhagen, giving information about birds in
Extremadura and taking into account posts from this blog. Interesting
records also appear. One example is a photograph of a Lanner
Falcon(Falco
biarmicus),
a second-year immature, seen in the district of Cuatro
Lugares, close
to Monroy (Cáceres), on 4 May 2013 by another Dane, John
D. Andersen.

We
had a post in June 2013 about
this species concerning a sighting near Trujillo which was of another
individual (a subadult). In that post there is further information
about the status of the species in Extremadura. The record described
here from Monroy would be the fifth
confirmed record in Extremadura,
all of them in steppe areas (La Serena, Llanos de Cáceres-Trujillo,
Cuatro Lugares), apart from one in Plasencia. The species has been
recorded in January,
May (2 records) and June (two records) and
all pertain to immature
birds.

We thank Ib Helles for his initiative in spreading the news
and look forward to further collaboration in the future.